Madam, - Carol Coulter’s article (Opinion, May 20^th) describes the role of a court appointed guardian ad litem as talking to families, teachers and the children themselves “in attempting to establish what is really in their (the children’s) best interests”, suggesting that social workers, the key professionals in this area, act in something other than the child’s best interest.  For this to be true, which it is not, social workers would not only be contravening their own professional ethics and standards but also the clear statutory duty delegated to them by the HSE under the Child Care Act 1991.... click here to read more..

Following Prime Time programme, social workers demand allocated social workers for every child in need, the full resourcing of children and families social work teams and early intervention and support for families... click here to read more... and click here to read a letter sent to Prime Time and The Irish TImes..

The Council of Irish Adoption Agencies (CIAA) is a forum incorporating all adoption agencies, both voluntary and statutory, in the Republic of Ireland. Council members advocate on the basis of ‘best practice’ in relation to all aspects of adoption. While agencies themselves are members of Council, it is usual that it is the practitioners and professionals directly involved in the day-to-day operation of the adoption services, namely Social Workers that represent each agency at Council... click here to read more...

THE IRISH Association of Social Workers has called for appropriate accommodation to be provided for young people in need of care.

President of the association Ineke Durville said social workers did not agree with the current system. Children assessed as needing accommodation often end up using the night-time emergency service because of a lack of appropriate beds, she added.

The call came after Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter told the Dáil that a 16-year-old boy in care was left overnight in an internet café because there was no suitable place to accommodate him. He also said a 17 year old who had been in the care of the State, had been missing for 13 days.

Ms Durville said if a child was assessed and a social worker deemed it necessary to take that child into care, there should be a range of options available to meet that child’s needs.

In reality, a shortage of placements means those options are very limited.

“For example, if a 14 year old in Dublin is deemed to need care at 2pm in the afternoon, the social worker will try to place him,” Ms Durville said.

“She may be ringing and ringing places to find somewhere suitable, but by 6pm she may not have found anywhere.

“Then the child will have to wait in a Garda station until an out-of-hours social worker takes him to emergency accommodation.”

The emergency beds were only available out of hours, she said, and ideally, should only be for a child who walks out of home and into a Garda station at night. In reality, though, they are used for children known to the day services who would be better placed in non-emergency accommodation.

“Social workers do not agree with this situation on principal; there should be suitable accommodation available,” she said.

She acknowledged that it was difficult to find places for some teenagers who were “angry at the world”, but said such children needed specialist care and optimal accommodation.

Placements should be made and accommodation provided based on the individual needs of the child, rather than only looking at value for money, she said.

“If you provide suitable accommodation, there will be times when there are empty beds and if you only consider value for money, you can’t have empty beds,” she said.

“But this is about children’s lives; they are young for a very short period of time and they have to have their needs met or they will be damaged.”

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0313/1224266197926.html